Being a personal finance blogger who often writes about side hustles and other money-making opportunities, I’ll have people ask me about specific gigs or companies they come across to get my opinion. Earlier this week, a friend of mine sent me a link to an upcoming program called Parallel Profits. Apparently, the two founders Steven Clayton and Aidan Booth are well-known and successful online entrepreneurs but, to be honest, I had never heard of them. Regardless, I took a look at their recently-released materials to see what I thought of their upcoming program.
First of all, I should mention that the full details of Parallel Profits have yet to be released. Instead, you can now sign-up to get a free ebook that walks you through the process of starting a business, including a myriad of tasks that would presumably be similar to what program participants would be launching if they join. Of course, the twist is that, with their program, you’ll have a shortcut to bypass their laundry list of steps and get going ASAP. Given this info, it sounds like Parallel Profits could be compared to a franchise model and will find participants securing their own clients while letting Parallel Profits handle the bulk of the client work.
What is the Parallel Profits Program?
So what will you be selling exactly? From the looks of it, you’ll be offering various online services to local small businesses. This includes everything from web hosting and SEO assistance to social media support. Frankly, this is the aspect of Parallel Profits that most interested me. I’ve personally often found myself wishing I knew more about local SEO so that I could offer help to some of my favorite area small businesses that are lacking in that department. Because of that, if I were to buy into this program, I could at least feel good about that what I was peddling.
Here’s a Mindmap of how their program works:
To that point, the ability to have Parallel Profits handle the, as they call it, “grunt work” seems to be among the main selling points. While that certainly is attractive, the duo does go onto say that you don’t really need to have knowledge of the products you’re selling and note, “Forget about needing to be any kind of expert or guru.” Sure, “guru” may be going a bit far, but I can’t imagine that being completely bereft of SEO, social media, or online marketing knowledge is going to fly with most potential clients. If it were me, I’d still definitely strive to educate myself on what I was selling and what went into each service instead of asking customers just to trust me.
Another question I have about the program is whether there will be some sort of cap or territory allocation to prevent too many participants from operating in a single market. Things like territories are popular among many brick-and-mortar franchises, with each new location needing to be approved. Considering that the Parallel Profits model focuses on local businesses, the need to limit the competition in your area seems heightened. Furthermore, if there’s a second big selling point in the materials so far, it’s that this line of business offers very low competition — hopefully it stays that way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUbD0F2A-2o
Is Parallel Profits Worth It?
I am admittedly intrigued the Parallel Profits program. On that note, Clayton and Booth are holding a series of live workshops on Monday, January 28th where they promise to reveal more details and answer everyone’s questions. That said, assuming the price is right and the services are quality, I do think it has the potential to be a win-win for you and those local business owners you bring on board. Therefore, I intend on at least checking out the workshops and getting more information to report on — I’ll be sure to keep you updated if I like what I find. Until then, you can explore what’s been announced so far and sign-up for the workshop yourself by visiting the Parallel Profits site.